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Barber Heel Turn?


Scott, 

Hulk Hogan feuded with Mr. Perfect in late '89-early '90. At the same time, I remember an angle run on TV where Brutus Beefcake had a run in with "The Model" Rick Martel
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, cutting up his clothes that he had been modelling, kick off a feud between those two. Then it seemed that it was abruptly changed, when Beefcake had a run in with Mr. Perfect at the Royal Rumble, totally no-selling the run in he had with Martel a couple weeks before. 

It seems to me that Beefcake was being put in a feud with a guy who was a hot heel at the time, with the heat from the Hogan-Perfect feud now being transferred to Beefcake-Perfect. Then Beefcake gets into the career-defining accident, cutting everything off. 

Given that Hogan got his feud with Beefcake at Starrcade '94, do you think that Beefcake was being groomed as yet another "Hogan friend turned enemy" run, if he had not gotten into the accident?

​I doubt it.  Beefcake already had his run with Hulk in 85 and didn't do any business, so I don't see them bothering with another try in 91. Clearly Beefcake was someone who the fans wouldn't buy as a heel anyway, as WCW discovered many times.  Plus you would think Beefcake would have been smart enough to know that his bread was clearly buttered on the Hulk side.  Although try clearly missed an opportunity by not having him ever betray Hulk so that we could someone crying 'ET TU, BRUTI?' in the context of a ​wrestling angle.  

Comments

  1. it's just a little coke guys, whats the big deal?

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  2. "Beefcake already had his run with Hulk in 85 and didn't do any business, so I don't see them bothering with another try in 91. "

    Yeah, they waited until 94 for that.

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  3. Considering Wrestlemania 5 ended kind of the ultimate "Hogan's best friend turns on him" story to that point, nobody would buy Beefcake as that badass of a heel even if they wanted to try another run against Hogan

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  4. Hogan was apparently the worst friend ever. When three "best friends" (Orndorff, Andre and Savage) turn on you in the span of three years, maybe it was time to look in the mirror.

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  5. Or maybe the 80s were just filled with haterz

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  6. Yes, in the different unrelated promotion run by a different person. That is correct.

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  7. If they turned on him because they sold out or turned evil, then that would be fine. However all 3 turned on him because Hogan treated them like shit.

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  8. It's like women who constantly find themselves in abusive relationships...like, if the last one hit you for talking during the game, maybe wait for commercial next time, you know?

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  9. Not true of Andre.

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  10. he wouldn't give him a title shot

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  11. Hulk can't read minds

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  12. Extant1979 - Extreme SuperstarMay 24, 2015 at 8:03 PM

    Not to mention interrupting his award ceremony for being undefeated for 15 years.

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  13. I'm willing to bet if we go back far enough we'll find some radio interview where he claims he can read minds.

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  14. You can say a lot about Hogan's bad ideas in WCW. I think his worst by far is thinking a Hogan vs. Brutus Beefcake match would draw at the biggest show of the year.

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  15. Okay, so I thought Beefcake turning heel and becoming the Butcher was cool. Not main event of Starrcade cool, but cool.

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  16. I could totally hear Gorilla or Lord Alfred saying "Et Tu, Bruti?"

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  17. There's a reason it was so easy to turn him heel. WCW fans HATED Hogan from day one. Reasons like this are why. Even in the NWO never existed it was only going to be a matter of time before Hogan would turn to the dark side.

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  18. While the core WCW fans hate Hogan, he did bring in a shitload of young WWF fans who were still into the act. But yes, within a year there was enough anti-Hogan backlash that he could've turned heel. Obviously, it was best that WCW waited until the Outsiders came aboard.

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  19. I'm pretty sure both promotions were run by Hogan.

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  20. Wrong place and wrong time maybe. The Flair stuff was insulting enough before everything shifted to Hogan vs Beefcake before Halloween Havoc even ended. Maybe turn Brutus AT Starrcade and blow it off at Uncensored

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  21. Great idea for the book.

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  22. Hogan kind of foreshadowed the nWo turn by dressing in black for a few weeks in late 95. I recall him burning an Observer during this phase. I was intrigued.

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  23. He treated Sid rather poorly as well

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  24. Theberzerker, #1 HUSS CHOMPIONMay 24, 2015 at 9:27 PM

    Nah, he would have feuded for the IC title a bunch then just follow Hogan out the door (so to speak) in 93/94 like Duggan did.

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  25. No, but Hulk should have good manners.

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  26. Starrcade 1994 drew oddly well for a Tuesday night PPV. The show next year (on a Wednesday night) drew barely half the buyrate.


    Maybe the heavily hyped appearance of Randy Savage?

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  27. Yeah I think the crowds leaned towards supporting Hogan in 1994 until mid 1995 for the most part, except in the south.



    The wheels fell off totally by the Nitro era, with Hogan getting routinely skewered in 1995/1996.

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  28. Maybe my memory of events is distorted by the fact I was only 12 years old at the time, but I seem to recall Beefcake being super over with the fans back in 1990. To the point where he was the third placed baby face behind Hogan and Warrior. Then he was put out of action by a parasailing accident and never regained his lost momentum. I don't if Beefcake's popularity might've led to anything greater. I'm guessing an IC title run and third billing on the show for a while. People tend to regard Beefcake as something of a joke now, but the fans would go mental for his hair cutting antics back in the day.

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  29. He teamed with Hogan against zeus in the ppv cage match and summerslam so he was definitely over

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  30. Hogan without the mustache and dressed in black was basically a dark 70s Superstar Billy Graham. I was kind of hoping that's what he was going to do as Hollywood.

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  31. Fat, Ugly Inner-City SweathogMay 24, 2015 at 11:10 PM

    I've said it before, but I don't think the Hogan-Warrior Wrestlemania 6 match needed the IC title in order to be the big dream match. Personally, I would have Warrior get screwed out of the IC title at Mania 5 by Heenan (vs. Rude), then declare war on the Heenan Family. He works house show re-matches with Rude, plows through Haku, Arn, Tully, en route to beating Andre one-on-one at SummerSlam '89 (bigger win than regaining the IC title). At SummerSlam, I would do Rude vs. Beefcake for the IC title to capitalize on Beefcake's popularity. Tease the idea of Brutus cutting the narcissistic Rude's hair. Rude retains via screwjob at SummerSlam, the feud continues. Team Rude vs. Team Beefcake at Survivor Series. Brutus beats Rude for the IC title at Royal Rumble '90, while Warrior wins the Rumble match. Transition to a Beefcake vs. Perfect feud for Wrestlemania 6, title vs. "undefeated streak." Brutus retains to end Hennig's streak, but Perfect wins the IC title in a later re-match. Brutus ended up hurt soon after, so that sucked for him. He could have had a nice run as IC champ alongside his buddy Hulk, without Warrior being hurt by any of it.

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  32. Fat, Ugly Inner-City SweathogMay 24, 2015 at 11:12 PM

    I feel like SummerSlam '89 should have been a Hogan-Savage re-match, but Beefcake's popularity was definitely at its peak that summer for sure

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  33. Fat, Ugly Inner-City SweathogMay 24, 2015 at 11:13 PM

    That feud could have ended with Beefcake cutting Mr. Perfect's hair off....and it would have been all-time great stuff

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  34. I remember just waiting for Hogan to give us the "et tu bruti" line during their 94 feud. I mean, they called him "brother brut-eye" up to that point, it totally would have worked and should have been said!

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  35. 1990 was also Beefcake's peak as a worker, which was a good sign since it meant he wasn't coasting on his push simply as a friend-of-Hogan. Who knows what might've been with the Barber as IC champ at Summerslam '90?

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  36. Why would you say that WCW would see they wouldn't buy him as a heel? The Only ppv he ever headlined was literally twice as successful as Starrcade 95 which oddly enough didn't have any of Hogans Heroes on it. Actually Starrcade 94 drew really well for them. 130,000 buys made it not only their third highest drawing ppv that year but it was their third highest bought pay per view since Havoc or 92. So its another case of hardcore fans hating something but the majority of wrestling fans at the time being interested enough in it to spend the 40 dollars or whatever it was.


    It also did double the buyrate of 95's Starrcade. Random fact Uncensored 96 that everyone hates was the highest drawing pay per view in WCW history until Starrcade 96. Its tied with both Bash at the Beach 96 and Halloween Havoc for that spot all three shows doing 250,000 buys. So yeah apparently there was as many people were interested in the Alliance to end Hulkamania as there was interested in the who the third man would be for the nWo.

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  37. The guy had been undefeated for 15 years and never once had a title shot. Why would Hogan think he even wanted one?

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  38. It was campy, but I liked the spray-painted beard at the time. It's wierd, because "Hollywood Hogan" really didn't become an idea for maybe two weeks after Hogan's promo on Nitro. Hogan shows up on the 7/15 Nitro in just all black. Not even a homemade nWo shirt yet. His promo is still more Hulk Hogan and more of a copy of the Bash promo. Then Hogan shot the vingates for Saturday night and slowly he became "Hollywood." He didn't have it right away.

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  39. Sid already hated him, so that Hogan promo on SNME was just icing on the cake.

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  40. He was by far and a way my favorite as a kid. Never could understand why.

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  41. Oh you heel you!

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  42. I am pretty damn sure that interest in Randy Savage's debut drew the number for Starrcade 94. It's not like Beefcake was moving TV or house show numbers to go along with his epic PPV headlining debut.

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  44. Didn't Beefcake turned on Hogan just recently?

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  45. And he didn't do any more poorly than they did on those numbers throughout 95. He was a perfectly acceptable opponent for Starrcade and if it was Savage driving the number then Hogan's opponent was irrelevant anyway.

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  47. Starrcade always bounced around between Monday-Wednesday nights depending where Christmas fell during the week/weekend. Savage being hyped probably helped the draw, especially the shake his hand/slap him in the face tease. Hogan was still relatively fresh in WCW, having only feuded with Flair, so he was still a draw and it was a fresh matchup. (Not necessarily a good one, but at least it was someone new for Hogan to face. 95 was the WCW/NJPW World Cup where you had a bunch of WCW guys against some Japanese wrestlers that not many average fans knew of other than a few like Liger, Chono and Saito. You also had the three way winner vs Savage for the title, but no Hogan.

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  48. Regarding the madness behind Brutus the Barber/Butcher vs Hogan at Starcade 94, remember that Brutus only got the role as Hogan's Judas, because the originally planned person for being under the ski mask, was Curt Henning and Henning basically was milking a "Lloyds of London" insurance policy for all it was worth at the time and refused to sign with WCW at the time.

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